[WWII/TS/Covert Ops/Weird War II] Götterdämmerung on Walpurgisnacht

[Icelander]

What is a plausible way to destroy, as completely as possible, up to six tons of amber?

The PCs are to steal the McGuffin, but the chances of that being possible grows more remote by the hour. As an alternative, it's considered safer to destroy it than letting the Nazis retain it for another day, not to mention having it fall into the hands of the Soviets.

Would incendiaries or explosives be more effective in destroying it?

The less weight and volume needed, the better, as the supplies would have to be air-dropped and then carried from the drop zone.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What is a plausible way to destroy, as completely as possible, up to six tons of amber?

...

Would incendiaries or explosives be more effective in destroying it?

Amber burns reasonably well; I think that amber dust has been used to create pretty sparks, and amber stones as incense. So either should be fine.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Amber burns reasonably well; I think that amber dust has been used to create pretty sparks, and amber stones as incense. So either should be fine.

Yeah, but how much thermite and/or conventional explosives do you need to destroy six tons of amber?

[Polydamas]

I would think that depended on the local environment and on how much damage was necessary. If it were in a timber building one would just need to set the building ablaze; if it is in a sealed concrete bunker with few openings, explosives would probably be the best bet. If every last fragment of the amber must be destroyed, then one would need more munitions than if a few shattered remnants are acceptable.

Wikipedia suggests that the original room was 55 square metres and the reproduction is about 6 metres high.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What is a plausible way to destroy, as completely as possible, up to six tons of amber?

Do they have to destroy all of it? Is it not sufficient to destroy or remove some vital smaller part of it?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Do they have to destroy all of it? Is it not sufficient to destroy or remove some vital smaller part of it?

This is entirely possible. A couple of grenades might be enough. Some occult theorists even argue that with the right ritual, one might disrupt the efficiency of the McGuffin enough to render it harmless, using nothing heavier or more bulky than a thimble, some drop of mouse blood and an egg.

The problem is that there is more or less a consensus among the occult boffins that allowing the McGuffin to be undisturbed in the hands of Herr Himmler and his crew for Walpurgisnacht will have results anywhere from catastrophic to apocalyptic, but very few of them agree on how to stop it. This worries the mission planners very much.

The hard-headed commando leaders and spymasters who have learned that there are threats other than lead, steel and Stukas are taking this mission very seriously. Seriously enough to try to have as much redundancy in mission critical areas as they can reasonably arrange. Which means being able to destroy the McGuffin even if this requires near total destruction.

Obviously, for PCs to be doing PC stuff at all, plans A and B have already been scrapped. C is in the process of changing into E, I imagine, and I wouldn't be surprised if the PCs ran out of letters before they ran out of ammo and explosives.

High Command has already ruled out Operation Eclipse, taking the tack that real concerns about getting into a shooting war with Soviets trump any number of boding oracles and scary tea leaf readings. The fact is, even if the frighteningly competent conspirators that Sir Maxwell Knight has been tangling with at home and abroad during the war happen to have been dabbling in the occult, they've mostly posed a threat because of their discipline, tradecraft, excellent sources and willingness to die for a cause.

Theories aside, it's not as if any of Himmler's occult research has had the impact of the V-2 rockets or the Me 262 jet fighter. Granted, all the boffins are speaking of orders of magnitude more power and energy than they've seen before, but so far, the actual impact of Ahnenerbe sorceries or any other supernatural mumbo-jumbo has been miniscule.

Even if some of the Allied generals privately admit that the collection of evidence amassed by the MI-6 Witchcraft Research Unit and the OSS R&A Branch Anomalous Observation Section is compelling and pretty much proves that conventional science is wrong on several issues, no one can really provide any evidence that the occult can be a much bigger danger than a man with a gun, let alone a few dozen divisions.

There are, however, several field grade officers of the OSS and SOE, as well as the equivalent in the intelligence services, who do believe. And if they can't get three divisions of airborne troops to land in Berlin, they do want however many commandos they manage to get in position to have enough explosives to destroy the McGuffin several times over.

Because removing it, loading it on trucks and driving it out of Berlin would have been a fine plan if it could have been carried off with enough firepower to destroy the German defenders of the Zitadelle and finished before the Soviets got within a few hundred yards. But, alas, they didn't manage to meet their all-important local contact until the forward team had been in Berlin a month. And when they did, they found out that he's wanted as a deserter.

Now, just getting to the bunker will be a miracle. And blowing everything up is about the best they can hope for.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What is a plausible way to destroy, as completely as possible, up to six tons of amber?

Amber needs a reasonably humid atmosphere, or it dries out, becomes brittle and crumbles. This was apparently starting to happen to the Amber Room before WWII. This is reasonably well known so if the strike team could be provided with dehydration magic, they should have been.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Amber needs a reasonably humid atmosphere, or it dries out, becomes brittle and crumbles. This was apparently starting to happen to the Amber Room before WWII. This is reasonably well known so if the strike team could be provided with dehydration magic, they should have been.

Is this likely to be useful on a combat time scale? Could it be done as fast as several combat engineers rigging explosives?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Is this likely to be useful on a combat time scale? Could it be done as fast as several combat engineers rigging explosives?

If the dehydration magic is quick and powerful, sure. Cast ... sound of dust falling to the floor. But it depends on the magic.

Incidentally, a there's good photo of Maxwell Knight in today's Guardian. Scroll down a bit.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If the dehydration magic is quick and powerful, sure. Cast ... sound of dust falling to the floor. But it depends on the magic.

Everyone planning the mission is used to the magic in Very Low Mana, so the Normal (or higher) Mana inside the bunker will be hard for them to fathom. They expect magic to be much easier to perform, but only the most cockeyed optimists would have expected it to be this much easier.

A spell to drain the moisture from the air, making everything uncomfortably dry, would be something they could plan on. But that would just match what TL8 climate control could do, so I don't expect that amber would suffer much on a minute-by-minute time scale.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Incidentally, a there's good photo of Maxwell Knight in today's Guardian. Scroll down a bit.

M was a strange bird.

I'm wondering which real person to put in charge of the SAS element tasked with the landing zone. I'm attaching Christopher Lee and I need a more senior Lt. or a Captain, I guess. Best would be an SAS Captain with connections with Freemasonry and the Rosslyn Chapel, but failing that, any SOE or Commando officer with similar connections would do.